What is a Quaker?

If "Quaker" makes you think of horses and buggies, you have us mixed up with the Old Order Amish, who live "off the grid," wear "plain" dress, speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and live in community with others of the same faith.

If "Quaker" makes you think of elegant minimalist wooden chairs suspended from chair rails, you have us confused with Shakers, who lived celibate lives, raised orphans, made great furniture, and danced in community to celebrate their faith. Unfortunately, due to their reluctance to procreate, there now remain few Shakers among us.

Quakers did occupy Pennsylvania back in the day--that's why it's called the "Quaker State"--where their practice of religious tolerance drew other outlying and persecuted groups, like the Amish and Mennonites, to come and live and freely practice their faith. Quakers once dressed much like their Amish neighbors.

Although some conservative Friends (Quakers) still dress "plain," most of us find contemporary attire allows us greater focus on our spirituality. Still, we value our differences as well as our similarities, so Quakers as a whole are a diverse group. Many of us were raised in different faiths and over time, our spiritual journey has led us to become "convinced" Friends. Others, like Richard Mullins, grew up in homes where at least one parent came from generations of Friends. These are our Birthright Friends.

Practices like worshiping in silence until the Spirit moves us to speak and making decisions according to the Sense of the meeting unite us more than our individual belief systems do. We acknowledge our faith is a Christian one, though we may find ourselves side by side with those of various religions in our meeting for worship. One of my spiritual companions said it well, "Jesus Christ is welcome in our meeting, whatever your relationship with him is."

We like to look to our history and origins when attempting to explain our unique contribution to Christian diversity.Thanks to Jon Watts for his informative series, QuakerSpeak, now in its second season on youtube.